For the past couple of months, it's seemed to me that play here at ASN has been feeling stale. We've got good characters, good ideas, but the setting as it stands is starting to feel played-out. So many relationships are already established, which with the best will in the world ends up closing out new players and characters. I've talked to several of you about it, and it seems that some of you feel the same way.

So after some serious consideration, the admins have come up with some ideas to liven things up. But rather than impose them unilaterally, we're putting them up to the vote.

Please read through these five options, think about it, and vote ONCE in the poll. Seriously, guys, read the whole post. Don't skim. There are some inherent restrictions in each of the options, and you'll be sad if something comes as a big surprise to you later.

Read, choose, vote. Poll will close when a quorum have players have weighed in or when one option gets a total of seven (7) votes.

1) American Undead: Make the Game Political

Those who have been paying attention will have noticed that Shiloh and a few other characters have been laying the groundwork for this since the board opened. We would run a plot where the vampires of the U.S. staged a rebellion against the Council in Paris, some particularly nasty and dramatic events took place over the course of that war, and at the end of it Seattle will become the seat of an American vampire council, with the shifters creating a similar ruling body.

This option will change the way the game is played. Things will become far more about political maneuvering and balance of power, less about random weirdness and violence and private relationships. The average power level of characters will shift upward, but the opportunities to flaunt that power will be fewer, as it's dangerous to go flinging around metaphysics or money when you know that the four people sitting at the table with you can all do at least as much damage and possibly more.

2) Monster University: Next-Generation Board

We push forward about 20 to 25 years in time and set a game around the children of the current character roster. The game would be based at U-Dub and would shift focus noticeably away from the the current generation of characters. In fact, it's likely that the only PCs from this board that make it to the next generation will be the group leaders. This will be a new game, about new characters, not the ones we've already got.

3) Faetal Attraction: Class/Species Shakeup

The local sithen goes to war, and under the terms of their treaty with Shiloh, Seattle's monster community gets drawn into the fight. In order to make their allies into the most effective possible warriors, the fae perform a great act of magic which fundamentally alters the nature of each and every preternatural creature living within Shiloh's lands.

The result here is that we would functionally no longer be playing in an Anita Blake universe. Every class and species would be changed, power levels would shift, group structures would necessarily need to adapt to new conditions. As an example, under this plot the hyenas would all become psychopomps, escorting the souls of the dead from this world into the next. Every group would work with the hyenas in seeing their dead off properly and the hyenas would become something of a priestly class, spiritual protectors of the locals.

Every group would change at least that drastically, and the game would become about adjusting to and living in this new version of the world. One thing to note about this option is that the balance of power will shift rather dramatically--characters who are currently quite powerful will find themselves less so when it all shakes out.

4) Vampire Nouveau: Historical Setting

We flat-out start a new board based in Seattle in the 1930s. The Great Depression is in full swing and Seattle, with its thriving logging industry and burgeoning air travel hub, is one of the few cities in the U.S. where most people can find a job if they want one. Monsters are still living in secret, but Shiloh has just opened Many Moons, a glamorous hotel and club for the city's elite.

New characters, new challenges in how to live without cluing in the populace, fun playing with historical events and wrapping them into our version of Seattle.

5) What's Wrong with Happy?: Leave it Alone

The game's fine, the characters are fine, we just spent over a year building this world into what it is. Just keep the plots coming and stop trying to fix what aint broke.

...to Seattle, with all its thousand contradictions. A city of silicon dreams and bloody nightmares. Ruled by a child queen with diamond-tipped fangs, occupied by artists and shapeshifters, computer programmers and ancient vampires, college students and creatures of myth. Living (and unliving) together and once the sun goes down it's...

In-character content, help files, and original plots belong to the staff and members. If you see something cool you'd like to play with, ask. Given that we're using somebody else's mythos, it'd be pretty lame if we refused to share.